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Implementing Covid-19 measures: A pragmatic study of non-official public signs

This project examines how Covid-19 signage displayed in London businesses throughout the pandemic reproduces and adapts government instructions.

It makes an original contribution to research on risk communication by adopting a bottom-up approach and scrutinising the implementation of containment measures in specific local contexts.

A pragmatic analysis of directive signs regulating behaviour reveals the linguistic choices preferred by those implementing the measures on their premises and interprets them in relation to the official texts they reproduce. The analysis is supported by interviews with business owners, providing insights into the motivations behind specific linguistic choices and practices surrounding the signs.

Sign from Kew Palace about social distancing during Covid 19.

Photo taken by Dr Eva Ogiermann.

Aims

Successful containment of a pandemic requires not only introducing the right measures at the right time but also communicating them clearly to the public. Previous research on risk communication has mainly relied on surveys, a method that studies beliefs about and attitudes towards risk communication and adopts the top-down perspective of health officials and policy makers.

This project takes a novel, bottom-up approach to the study of risk communication by examining non-official Covid-19 signs and interpreting them in relation to the texts they reproduce. Its main focus is on a pragmatic analysis of ca. 3,000 directive signs designed to regulate behaviour (such as “No mask - No entry”), displayed on the premises of London’s shops and hospitality venues, and photographed throughout the pandemic.

Methods

Initial insights gained during data collection show that the signs display a high level of directness. Yet, unlike official instructions, the non-official Covid-19 signs tend to soften the demands made on the customers through informality and humour, reflecting the need for customer retention.

To establish how the formulations chosen by the business owners have been adapted to suit local contexts, the signs will be compared to official communications issued between March 2020 and July 2021, including legislation published on www.gov.uk, speeches delivered by the Prime Minister, and official Covid-19 signage.

Interviews with business owners, on the other hand, will provide a better understanding of their motivations for choosing particular formulations and their experiences with handling the signs. Ultimately, they will shed some light not only on the practical side of the implementation of policy measures but also on the effectiveness of the approach taken by the British government both in developing interventions and communicating them to the public.

Work that has informed Implementing Covid-19 measures: A pragmatic study of non-official public signs includes:

The project is part of Dr Ogiermann's wider research on public signage which has previously focused on signs announcing closures during the first Covid-19 lockdown.

This strand of her work was conducted jointly with Spyridoula Bella (University of Athens) and has so far resulted in three articles comparing different aspects of signs displayed on the closed doors of businesses in London and Athens:

  • Ogiermann, E. & Bella, S. (2021) On the dual role of expressive speech acts: Relational work on signs announcing closures during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Journal of Pragmatics 184: 1-17.
  • Bella, S. & Ogiermann, E. (2022) Accounts as acts of identity. Justifying business closures on Covid-19 public signs in Athens and London. Pragmatics, online first.
  • Ogiermann, E. & Bella, S. (in press) Disseminating risk communication: Advice offered on non-official public signage during the Covid-19 pandemic. Pragmatics & Society.

Conferences

A conference panel on ‘The interpersonal functions of public signs during the Covid-19 pandemic’ that Dr Ogiermann organised at the 13th Symposium on (Im)Politeness brought together work on Covid-19 signs from nine different countries. The papers that emerged from the panel will appear in a Special Issue that she has edited for Pragmatics and Society.

News

New study of Covid-19 public signs launched

A new research project, led by Dr Eva Ogiermann, examines how Covid-19 signage displayed in London businesses throughout the pandemic reproduces and adapts...

Sign from Kew Palace about social distancing during Covid 19.

Work that has informed Implementing Covid-19 measures: A pragmatic study of non-official public signs includes:

The project is part of Dr Ogiermann's wider research on public signage which has previously focused on signs announcing closures during the first Covid-19 lockdown.

This strand of her work was conducted jointly with Spyridoula Bella (University of Athens) and has so far resulted in three articles comparing different aspects of signs displayed on the closed doors of businesses in London and Athens:

  • Ogiermann, E. & Bella, S. (2021) On the dual role of expressive speech acts: Relational work on signs announcing closures during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Journal of Pragmatics 184: 1-17.
  • Bella, S. & Ogiermann, E. (2022) Accounts as acts of identity. Justifying business closures on Covid-19 public signs in Athens and London. Pragmatics, online first.
  • Ogiermann, E. & Bella, S. (in press) Disseminating risk communication: Advice offered on non-official public signage during the Covid-19 pandemic. Pragmatics & Society.

Conferences

A conference panel on ‘The interpersonal functions of public signs during the Covid-19 pandemic’ that Dr Ogiermann organised at the 13th Symposium on (Im)Politeness brought together work on Covid-19 signs from nine different countries. The papers that emerged from the panel will appear in a Special Issue that she has edited for Pragmatics and Society.

News

New study of Covid-19 public signs launched

A new research project, led by Dr Eva Ogiermann, examines how Covid-19 signage displayed in London businesses throughout the pandemic reproduces and adapts...

Sign from Kew Palace about social distancing during Covid 19.
Project status: Ongoing

Principal Investigator

  • ECS_ogiermanne2014

    Eva Ogiermann

    Senior Lecturer in English Language and Applied Linguistics

Funding

Funding Body: Leverhulme Trust

Amount: £44,459

Period: September 2022 - June 2023

Keywords

COVID-19SIGNAGERISK COMMUNICATIONPRAGMATICS